What are your strategies for avoiding flat tires?
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Posted 1 year ago #
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Posted 1 year ago #
The past year I've been using Specialized Armadillo tires (26" x 1.5").
Recently replaced the rear tire after... 5,000 kilometers! It was well overdue for a change. In all that time, only one flat... and that was due to an old rusty exacto knife blade going straight in.
I ride through residential alleys and downtown streets where there's a lot of roofing nails and glass lying around. Typically my skinny road tires on my Fuji Track get multiple flats a year in these conditions.
Higher end tires are pricier, but you get what you pay for, just like anything else.
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Posted 1 year ago #
I Have the simplest and Cheapest solution for this...
Not to brag as i just read about it in a cycling Magazine about 5 years ago but here is what you do.
I only do this on the back tire as a front tire flat is rare for me but you can do it on both.
What you need:
1- Good new Tube
1- Old tube, probably the flat one.
Scissors
Roll of electrical tape -Important
Bike pumpIt's called a double tube and it is dead simple.
First you pump your new tube up so that it takes shape.
Then you take the broken tube and you cut out the inflator nozzle and cut a seam around the inside of the broken tube so that you can wrap it around your new tube. Make sure the seam is on the inside (towards the rim).
Then use electrical tape to hold the wrapped tube in place and install it as a normal tube. It needs to be electrical tape because it A) will stick to itself well and B) it will stretch when you pump up the tube so your tire will be a proper shape.
Note that this will add "rotational weight" to your tire which is apparently really bad but I never really noticed a difference and it's certainly better then walking home 6 km once a month.
Other things to look out for are small burrs or metal scarring in the rim or long spoke threads pushing their way through the rubber band.
I swear by the double tube method and you probably have a spare tube electrical tape and scissors around the house anyways and it is fully reversible if you don't like it so it's definately worth trying out.
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Posted 1 year ago #
It's also a good thing to do some inspection every so often to prevent flats. Check the tyres, making sure that there are no objects embedded in them or to see if there are any tears of holes which could cause the tube to pop out and blow out. Deflate/remove the tyre and tube and check the rim tape as well, making sure it properly covers and spokes in the rim. In the event of a flat, check to see if there are any objects or debris in the tyre by sweeping a rag inside of it, that way the object that caused the flat in the first place won't do it again.
Good tyres with anti-flat protection are useful too as sometimes debris can be unavoidable on the road. Also make sure that the tyre pressure is right, neither too low nor too high.
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